Outrage at killings near Philippines mine

By Lindsay Murdoch, Bangkok

CHURCH leaders and activists are calling for nationwide protests over the murder of the family of a tribal leader who has led opposition to an Australian-run gold and copper mine on Mindanao Island.

The Philippines' Senate committee on justice and human rights has said it will investigate the killing of Daguil Capion's pregnant wife, Juvy, 27, and sons Pop, 13, and John, 8, promising the results will be made public.

The three were gunned down on the morning of October 18 in the village of Bong Mal, in Tampakan, near the site of the $5.7 billion Sagittarius mine, about 65 kilometres north of General Santos City.

It is owned by the Brisbane-based Xstrata Copper and Melbourne's Indophil Resources. The alleged perpetrators of what has become known as the Tampakan massacre are soldiers of the Philippine army's 27th Infantry Battalion.

A neighbour of the Capions claims to have heard a soldier calling out "finish them off" to his colleagues.

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Xstrata and Indophil have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in what would be south-east Asia's biggest gold and copper mine, due to open in 2016.

But the killings are likely to fuel opposition to the project.

Army spokesmen have claimed that the soldiers became involved an "encounter" as they approached the Capions' house.

But Mr Capion, who was wanted by the military for attacks on mine contractors, was working in fields nearby, and his wife and four of his children were alone inside the house.

The soldiers involved in the shootout had been recalled to the Eastern Mindanao Command for investigation of "possible lapses", said a military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Lyndon Paniza.

Mr Capion's sister Erita

said that after the slayings, soldiers pulled two surviving children — Becky, 5, and Riza, 10 — from the house.

Becky was wounded and in a critical condition, but Riza was unharmed.

Ms Capion said the soldiers then dragged the bodies out of the house.

They refused for eight hours to allow relatives to go to them, at the same time demanding to know the whereabouts of Mr Capion, a man they have branded a bandit and an extortionist.

Jesus Garanera, national co-ordinator of the Stop Mining Alliance, said Mr Capion was a senior leader of one of five communities whose ancestral lands were within the mine project area.

The Mindanao Alliance of Indigenous Peoples said in a statement the killings were an "act of barbarity" by soldiers against people who were only defending their land from being turned into ugly mine sites.

Manolo Labor, a spokesman for Sagittarius Mines, said the killings were a matter for police and the military, and it was not appropriate for the company to comment on the details.

"However, we are deeply saddened by any loss of life in our host communities," he said.

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"We do not condone violence in any form, and continue to support the peaceful resolution of conflict within our region with commitment to the rule of law."

The Task Force-Justice for Environment Defenders group claims the Tampakan killings brought to 47 the number of anti-mining victims of extra-judicial killings in the Philippines since 2001.